Cricket: Injuries take heavy toll

NAPIER - For a series that took more than a year to complete, the showdown between Sri Lanka and New Zealand has taken a higher than expected toll.

Postponed after last year's Boxing Day tsunami, the series concluded yesterday in Napier with a 4-1 result in favour of the hosts, but with significant injuries in both camps.

New Zealand, who will begin their drawcard series against the West Indies with the first ODI on February 18, disperse this morning with question marks over injured batsman Scott Styris, paceman Kyle Mills and all-rounder Jacob Oram.

They're also waiting for the injured fingers of Andre Adams to heal. They survived another injury scare yesterday morning when Stephen Fleming was cleared to play after suffering a groin strain.

Styris has been dogged by problems in both knees for the past five seasons, and the worry is that he will be further restricted in his part-time bowling duties, which have already reaped 104 wickets at an economy rate of 4.66.

If he is unable to bowl, he will find himself in an entirely different selection contest, competing against specialist batsmen instead of players who have more than one string to their bow, such as Nathan Astle.

While that might not bother Styris, or Astle for that matter, it would certainly pour the pressure on front-line batsmen who don't bowl; players such as Stephen Fleming, Jamie How, Peter Fulton and Hamish Marshall.

Oram's bruised heel will also be causing some alarm at NZC level, given that the big all-rounder has already been forced out of competition with foot problems, and usually takes some time to heal.

As for Mills, he'd been New Zealand's form paceman of the home summer before he strained a groin in Christchurch, and coach John Bracewell will be anxious to have him back in time for the first ODI against the West Indies.

For all that, Sri Lanka's news was not much better at the weekend as their worst fears were confirmed about star batsman Sanath Jayasuriya, who dislocated his shoulder in a freak swimming pool accident in August and aggravated it after slipping in the shower last week in Christchurch.

One of only four players to have scored more than 10,000 ODI runs, the 38-year-old missed the last three matches of the New Zealand series and has now been ruled out of the VB tri-series in Australia, starting on Friday.

Jayasuriya has been replaced by Michael Vandort, who made his last international appearance three years ago in a test against Bangladesh.

Medium-pacer Nuwan Kulasekara and Chamara Kapugedara have also been added to the squad.

Casualty ward
* Scott Styris: knees
* Kyle Mills: groin
* Jacob Oram: heel
* Andre Adams: fingers